I am not sure how the Pope’s comments reconcile with “There is no salvation outside the Church” (we all know what that really means), but I would like to really understand what he means by “fundamentalism”. I think that we need a better definition of what we should not be doing if we are doing it.

STEVE RAY HERE: Good point, but I suspect “fundamentalist” refers to conservatives holding to the fundamental truths defended for 2,000 years.

The Pope was speaking Italian and it is very close to Spanish, so I could understand much of what he said. The accompanying translation to English confirmed that I understood correctly.

He explained precisely what he meant. He says that many “fundamentalists” use the Truth to beat up on others. He says they claim to believe in the Absolute truth that is in the Church and yet they lie about those outside the Church. This is the “fundamentalist” attitude to be combatted. The “holier than thou” attitude which many, even in the Catholic Church, hold towards others. Rather than loving their neighbors, they despise anyone who does not believe as they do.

I’ve met people like that. In my area, many of the “Traditionalist” Catholics fall into that category. Some left the Church because of that attitude. They seem to think they are holier than the Pope, so to speak.

Its a dangerous attitude. Stick with the Pope. He is the one whom Christ gave the Charism of infallibility. If you don’t have faith in the Pope, at least keep faith in Christ.

I’m no expert in translating our Pope but based on his past comments I think he’s referring to Catholics that maybe proselytize and are arrogant with our truths. I think the Pope is condemning Catholics for waving around the flag of “we have the truth and you don’t, so you better convert if you want to be saved.” I know it’s difficult but we have to love people back to the truth and know that’s it’s the job of Chrust to change hearts…we’re only the instrument.

I don’t think that the Pope has an argument about the basics of Catholic beliefs. After all, he has not, nor will he change any. Perhaps De Maria’s take is what he sees as the issue. My guess is that he has never been in a position to be attacked. He grew up with 90% plus Catholics around him.

Taking a judgmental attitude of Tradionalists has the same effect and it would be wise to stop with the castigating. The pope has not clarified who he means and leaves us all to have to guess. Simply put the church is without a rudder and there are drunken sailors fighting in the wheelhouse.

Just more of the same from the Pope who shows mercy to everyone exept traditionalists. We need a courageous come back people. Don’t let the voldemort effect take place. In the Harry Potter movies the world suffers because no one will name the enemy (he who must not be named) or even admit that the bad guy exists at all. We must name our opponent. Modernism has completely ransacked our Church. The Roman Catholic Church has become the most dishonest branch of christianity in the world. The lay people openly defy or ignore Church teaching. The priests and bishops tiptoe dogma with ambiguous double talk while outright defying sacred teaching with their actions. We are assured that dogma hasn’t changed, but our witness to the world certainly has! The Church of Nice will say or do anything to get a pat on the head from the world. I’m happy to see more and more of the faithful waking up to this alarming situation. If only to pray for our bishops.

I agree with you Kenneth. However it seems it is different depending on what part you are in in the world. Where I am in (southern Canada) I am mostly surrounded by athiests and agnostics and everyone “playing nice” and Christians (especially Catholics) are the old one out. Our Church many times seems to not know what is going on half the time (including money going missing and just trying to get more parishioners rather than teaching what the gospel means at all). Tomorrow is a day of obligation in the Catholic Church (Dec 9th, 2015) yet looking in all the church bulletins online for my city I could not find one Church with a mass for that. The Catholic Church feels lost lately in the “let’s tone down our believes to get more people in” rut. My mom is from “the old country” and she says it is amazing how people who go to Church now just go through the motions and don’t even know why they have to be there for the whole hour. They put more focus on clapping for the choir at the end rather than the mass itself. My mom says that there used to be more importance placed on the the actual mass and Church being God’s house that we are all gathering together in and learning instead of “we are here .. putting in our time. Okay .. will be back next week”. And then so many have lack of answers and are trying to fill in the blanks but are only spreading misinformation. The fact that some “fundamentalists” are doing that seems to say that we need answers and the priests need to give them so we don’t end up being the ones trying to do so ourselves and judging others when we should be loving others. There is a way to teach and spread the gospel without pushing or judging. Jesus did so .. and very well at that.

Perhaps a better way of understanding what he is saying is to look at the Pharisees in the NT. Pharisees live amongst us today–neither surprising or novel. And just like the Pharisees of that time, they tend to be ‘blind’ to the problem, and take offense. The hermenutical key is ‘new Pharisees’. Peace of Christ with you all.